We're taking you to a restaurant
that is the cat's meow.
We are going way up high on the
31st floor in downtown Bellevue
to ascend prime steak and sushi.
Now, not only can you
see from miles and miles,
but you can also find wood fired
steaks that'll melt in your mouth
and I got a first hand look at
what goes into making the perfect
steak executive chef Brandon Meal.
Let me in on one secret.
It's all about the wood.
First of all, congratulations,
you just celebrated 4 years way up here.
31 floors high on top of the
Lincoln Square South tower.
That's gotta feel great.
That's pretty amazing. Absolutely.
It's it's been a lot of hard work,
a lot of dedication.
And now here we are today. Absolutely
well. My stomach's gonna try not to growl
but I can't promise you that because
I have to tell you the smells in this
huge amazing restaurant are amazing.
That grill that we passed on the
way in is incredible but I also
wanted to ask you about.
The tree room, I mean, why do you
have trees hanging from the ceiling?
It's to represent the the woods that
we utilize for our grilled room.
So we we utilize 5 different kinds of woods.
We use the apple wood, a Peach wood,
a pear, wood and alderwood and
an Oakwood and the for the state.
Specifically, we're utilizing a
little bit heavier of the smoke.
Not quite on the sweetness,
more of the apple, the oak,
and the alderwood.
Why is it important to use different
woods to cook different things
so the beef needs a stronger flavor
to kind of hold up to the strong?
Flavor of the beef itself and you
wanna use more of the subtle,
sweeter woods for secret
for fish, the wood, the smoke from it
definitely flavours the food alright,
so you were mentioning the meat.
What what makes the cut here at a cent?
And how do you choose your beef?
So we use a lot of different beef.
Here we have a an amazing prime dry
aged program as well as American
League as well as Japanese Wagyu for
the Dry Age program specifically,
you know we're looking for
a specific number of days,
but it's also the color and
the texture of the meat.
As well as the smell.
So when we open up that package of
the beef of this, this steak that's cut,
I'm looking for a a sweet nuttiness.
You know not not so much on
the really really strong funk,
but something that's going to be a
really enjoyable and as you dry age
longer it tenderizes the beef as well.
So two questions what is dry
aging and what do we have here?
So first answer is dry aging is humidity
and temperature controlled in a room.
For a specific number of days, OK,
right here we have our prime dry aged
rib eye and this is going to be aged
for 52 days and that is after it's
wet age for 28 days before that.
So it's a very long process.
And then in the middle here we have
Mishima Ultra American Wagyu rib as well.
And then over here on the right
hand side we have Japanese Wagyu.
This one is specific to the region,
Gunma and when we are looking for
a 5 specifically we're looking for.
You know the scale goes all the way up to 12.
We're looking for Elevens and twelves
so that really deep marble lization.
I mean it's beautiful.
I you it you gotta take a look
at this cause it's incredible.
I actually looking at this I
don't think I've ever had a raw
piece of meat make my mouth
water but that looks so good.
Do you have any other tips on choosing beef?
If you're choosing something
for a nice meal at home,
I think the the biggest thing is is
always going to be the mobilization.
You know something that doesn't have
very large fat chunks going through.
Or something that's got some
thinner spider webbing of fat.
It's gonna be a little bit more tender.
It's also gonna have a little more flavor.
Alright, we're gonna take this
to the grill in a second,
but first, how do you season it?
It's very, very liberally
on this on the salt for
sure. Like I'm here for that.
I love salt, so since
we're on an open flame grill,
you know you do lose about 30% of the
of the salt that you put on the outside.
So we're gonna go a little bit heavier.
And then as you increase in the
amount of fat you want to throw in
more salt to counterbalance that fat.
All right, let's see. So
we're gonna go.
And I rub OK and then we
want to make sure to get all
get all the ends.
That is a beautiful, beautiful,
and then we'll do the same thing goodbye.
OK, me to it. Absolutely OK.
I did wash my hands.
Y'all just want you to know that.
So you just get it on there.
You rub it in nice and thick perfect.
Is it too much?
I feel like when I slap it too I
feel like that you should do that.
That's a thing for sure.
Get the sides perfect they and then wait.
Let me do the bottom.
Now that just even feels
like expensive meat.
Perfect go alright. Let's go
get this on the grill, perfect.
So I I rubbed it with a a black
garlic butter which we take
the black garlic and we puree.
And then we whip into butter
and it helps to kind of add to
that umami rich flavour already.
And now we let the steaks rest for
a bit and it is time to taste them.
I'm so excited. So this is the A5.
This is going to be the A5 that gunma, OK,
just take a little piece right here, oh.
Ohh my goodness, chef barely had time to
cut into those steaks as you saw before I
was trying them popping it in my mouth.
The wood fired steaks are as
world class there as the view.
And of course you know I wasn't
going to leave without dessert.
So later in the show ascends pastry Chef
and I whip up a few heavenly desserts,
including the magic mushroom and
a beehive that we lit on fire.
Yeah, it's going to be pretty cool,
so you want to stick around for that.